Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-09-11
. FL. Taylor
lo5, iO7 Houston and !0i Main Street.

was there not reduction m1de also for
the man with the hoe? l submit 20 your
generosity to say whether CT not Lay sug-
gestion is unreasonable, and f o demand,
would it be unreasonable? | shall lot
request or demand OF you to do any act
not permitted by the law. have simply
appealed to the executive to investigate
the case and enforce the law IS it is writ
ten, and not according to "discreiiou."
For l am persuaded from observe
ton, that the state has been
tdlscrctioned" out Of millions
of dollars in the last decade, besides
thousands Of good citizens, in tie man-
agement Of these lsnds.
You boast Of the saving clsuse you put
in each lease, by which yOu claim that the
rights OF settlers who were on the land
on the 4th of July are fully protected, a1d
that the lease is further made su1J2ct TO
future classification, end that the ssllcuI-
tUral lands will be subject 10 sale under
it. You need not have done go, because
the law already provides tor that emer-
gency through my amendment, which
came so nesr being defeated by
the managers Of the bill. And
with this flourish you triumph
antIy ask me il I 1elieye that leSses made
in this manner will keep Gu. g single set
tier. | answer you th&J l 10 SO believe;
and it seems from the language OF the
Law that the Legislature Colcurred with
me in my opinion. (See sections 10 and
% of the land law My belief, however,
does not cut figure in this matter. Let
US again refer to the law. | fully agree
with you that "thts law is the viii OF the
people, end the Commissioner is their
servant" And "thG law is wonderfully
full and explicit, and you have Dut TO re&d
II csrefuliy' to know What 10 do. Sec
ton Is requires that when application
| to lease is made, "the Commis sioneT, if
e6tistied that the lands applied for afe
| not in immediate demand Tor purposes OF
actual settlement, and td8t sucd I>nos
can be leased without detrimant to the
| public interest, shall notify the applicant
in writing that his proposition to Jesse IS
accepted" How is the Commissioner
| salts fed before accepting the proposition
to lease? Does he require the applicant
| to furnish evidence tc satisfy him inst the
lands applied for "are not IN immediate
demand for purposes OF actual settle
ment?" or does the Commissioner waive
the proof and assume that 1t
| Is LOG WSnLSO iO1 SCeIAOASAU
and if you do so assume, by what course
of reasoning do you arrive ct such & con-
clusion? l called upon the Governor III
my letter for construction OF this sec
ton OF the Law, asserting that the Pan
handle lands were in demand for settle
ment. Ii your reply you failed to re-
spond to this request, but you make this
| important admission: "The necessity for
having these lands classified IS almost
universal throughout the state where aEy
of them are located. From Ell Paso to
Bowie, shd from the lower Rio Gfande to
the Panhandle come adVices that set
tiers are oWaiting classification"
This confirms my assertion that these
lands are in demand for purposes Of set
tlement. Well then, the interested pub
lie would Ike 10 know how the CJmmis-
sioner can, under his osth az ctfice, lease
out these lands. Let Us fellow up this
subject. You say that ali LAID vii! be
classed ss agricultural which is ''smooth
enough TO be plowed and fertile enough
to be productive" which Is satisfactory
to us. You have been in the Panhandle
and must acknowledge that according tC
that standard, most of this country will
be clsssed as agricultural land. Let Us
again refer TO the lew. Section e
reads: "The Commissioner Of the Ger
eral Land Office, under the direction
the Governor, may withhold from
any agricultural lands necessary for
poses of settlements, or, in his discrt